Toyota did not ask for handout
There was no evidence Toyota New Zealand might move its head office or national distribution centre from Palmerston North, says the sole dissenter who voted against the city council giving the motor company a grant.
City councillor Karen Naylor said there was a suggestion made of the possibility the city would lose Toyota.
‘‘But that’s not the same as evidence. It was hearsay. And they were not even asking us for money.’’
Naylor said she could only now speak out about her opposition to the $391,000 grant, after chief executive Heather Shotter on Thursday released minutes of a council meeting held behind closed doors in September, 2017.
Mayor Grant Smith said making a grant with conditions the $23 million national warehouse expansion went ahead, and its head office be retained in Palmerston North, was made because the city could not risk losing the business.
He said there was no guarantee Toyota New Zealand’s parent company would confirm the investment in Palmerston North rather than in another centre.
‘‘That was signalled by Toyota New Zealand’s consultant to us. It was a competitive situation.
‘‘The threat was there, and it was real, and we did not want to test that,’’ he said.
Smith said Toyota’s ongoing commitment to Palmerston North could not be taken for granted, as demonstrated by the recent move of its motorsport activities to Waikato.
But Naylor said she was not convinced the grant was necessary or prudent.
‘‘I don’t think they needed our money.’’
Stuff’s requests for copies of the reports that went to two council meetings in August and September, 2017, leading to the councillors’ decision to spend up to $518,000 on a grant, have been turned down.
Those reports remained confidential to protect the ability of staff to express a number of opinions and options without fear of them becoming public.
A clause in the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act allowed such reports to be withheld.
Naylor said given the limited release of minutes from the meetings, she could not speak freely about what councillors were told, what questions they asked, or what other views were expressed.
She said she was worried about why the deal had been kept secret for so long, despite her efforts to have it openly recorded in the council’s 2017/18 annual report.
The only mention made in the report, which does not name Toyota, refers to extra expenses in city marketing and branding, explained in part by additional economic development support grants.
There was $2.591,000 in the budget, but $3.206,000 was actually spent, an extra $615,000.
Naylor said rather than make the grant, the council should have had confidence that the benefits of doing business in Palmerston North were obvious, given its size, location, reasonable living costs and opportunities.
She said the grant set a precedent that would raise other businesses’ expectations that the council could help them out if they threatened to go elsewhere.
‘‘That’s ratepayers being held to ransom.’’
Stuff has asked Toyota New Zealand how real the possibility was that it might move, and how significant the grant was in keeping it here, but staff have declined to comment.